editorNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Dan Charles is NPR's food and agriculture correspondent. Primarily responsible for covering farming and the food industry, Charles focuses on the stories of culture, business, and the science behind what arrives on your dinner plate. This is his second time working for NPR; from 1993 to 1999, Charles was a technology correspondent at NPR. He returned in 2011. During his time away from NPR, Charles was an independent writer and radio producer and occasionally filled in at NPR on the Science and National desks, and at Weekend Edition. Over the course of his career Charles has reported on software engineers in India, fertilizer use in China, dengue fever in Peru, alternative medicine in Germany, and efforts to turn around a troubled school in Washington, DC. In 2009-2010, he taught journalism in Ukraine through the Fulbright program. He has been guest researcher at the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg, Germany, and a Knight Science JournalismNPR Digital Services RSS Generator 0.94Daniel CharlesWed, 14 Feb 2018 15:18:38 +0000Daniel Charleshttp://wkar.org
Daniel CharlesIn Arkansas, there's a kind of David-versus-Goliath battle underway over a weedkiller. On one side, there's the giant Monsanto Company. On the other, a committee of 18 people, mostly farmers and small business owners who regulate the use of pesticides in the state. They've banned Monsanto's latest way of killing weeds. Terry Fuller is on that committee. He never intended to pick a fight with a billion-dollar company. "I didn't feel like I was leading the charge," he says. "I felt like I was just trying to do my duty." Terry Fuller and his identical twin, Jerry Fuller, grow soybeans and raise cattle near the tiny town of Poplar Grove, in eastern Arkansas. A big part of their business, though, is selling seeds to farmers. And in their storage shed, Terry Fuller shows me the product that's turned neighbors against each other and provoked that fight with Monsanto. The product is soybean seeds. Fuller leans over and reads the label on one large bag. "7478XTS, so that is an Xtend soybeanThese Citizen-Regulators In Arkansas Defied Monsanto. Now They're Under Attackhttp://wkar.org/post/these-citizen-regulators-arkansas-defied-monsanto-now-theyre-under-attack
114630 as http://wkar.orgWed, 14 Feb 2018 12:36:00 +0000These Citizen-Regulators In Arkansas Defied Monsanto. Now They're Under AttackThe Trump administration is proposing a major shake-up in one of the country's most important "safety net" programs, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. Under the proposal, most SNAP recipients would lose much of their ability to choose the food they buy with their SNAP benefits. The proposal is included in the Trump administration budget request for fiscal year 2019. It would require approval from Congress. Under the proposal, which was announced Monday, low-income Americans who receive at least $90 a month — just over 80 percent of all SNAP recipients — would get about half of their benefits in the form of a "USDA Foods package." The package was described in the budget as consisting of "shelf-stable milk, ready to eat cereals, pasta, peanut butter, beans and canned fruit and vegetables." The boxes would not include fresh fruits or vegetables. Currently, SNAP beneficiaries get money loaded onto an EBT card they can use to buy what they want asTrump Administration Wants To Decide What Food SNAP Recipients Will Gethttp://wkar.org/post/trump-administration-wants-decide-what-food-snap-recipients-will-get
114530 as http://wkar.orgMon, 12 Feb 2018 20:23:00 +0000Trump Administration Wants To Decide What Food SNAP Recipients Will GetDaniel CharlesHoneybees are amazing and adorable, and they suffer when people spray pesticides or mow down wildflowers. We've heard plenty in recent years about collapsing bee colonies. So Jonas Geldmann, at the University of Cambridge, says he understands how the honeybee became a symbol of environmental conservation. But he still doesn't like it. "Lots of conservation organizations are promoting local honey, and even promoting sponsorships of honeybees and that kind of stuff, and that increasingly annoyed me," he says. It annoyed him because the honeybee is perhaps the one type of bee that we should worry about the least. Honeybee hives aren't natural, and they don't help the environment. In fact, they may harm it. There are thousands of bee species. Almost all of them live in the wild, hiding away in the ground or in odd cavities, like hollow plant stems. They play a vital role in the ecosystem, pollinating flowering plants. Many are in peril; some species have disappeared. Researcher Nigel RaineHoneybees Help Farmers, But They Don't Help The Environmenthttp://wkar.org/post/honeybees-help-farmers-they-dont-help-environment
113763 as http://wkar.orgSat, 27 Jan 2018 13:21:00 +0000Honeybees Help Farmers, But They Don't Help The EnvironmentDaniel CharlesA tablespoon of soil contains billions of microscopic organisms. Life on Earth, especially the growing of food, depends on these microbes, but scientists don't even have names for most of them, much less a description. That's changing, slowly, thanks to researchers like Noah Fierer , at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Fierer think microbes have lived in obscurity for too long. "They do a lot of important things for us, directly or indirectly, and I hope they get the respect they deserve," he says. These microbes create fertile soils, help plants grow, consume and release carbon dioxide, oxygen and other vital elements. But they do it all anonymously. Scientists haven't identified most of these species and don't know much else about them, either, such as "what they're doing in soil, how they're surviving, what they look like," Fierer says. According to Fierer, they've been extremely difficult to study, in part, because most of them refuse to grow anywhere but in the dirt, "so weScientists Peek Inside The 'Black Box' Of Soil Microbes To Learn Their Secretshttp://wkar.org/post/scientists-peek-inside-black-box-soil-microbes-learn-their-secrets
113299 as http://wkar.orgFri, 19 Jan 2018 01:30:00 +0000Scientists Peek Inside The 'Black Box' Of Soil Microbes To Learn Their SecretsDaniel CharlesThis year, trucks and other heavy-duty motors in America will burn some 3 billion gallons of diesel fuel that's made primarily from vegetable oil. They're doing it, though, not because it's cheaper or better, but because they're required to, by law. The law is the Renewable Fuel Standard, or RFS. For some, especially Midwestern farmers, it's the key to creating clean energy from American soil and sun. For others — like many economists — it's a wasteful misuse of resources. And the most wasteful part of the RFS, according to some, is biodiesel. It's different from ethanol, a fuel that's made from corn and mixed into gasoline, also as required by the RFS. In fact, gasoline companies probably would use ethanol even if there were no law requiring it, because ethanol is a useful fuel additive — at least up to a point. That's not true of biodiesel. "This is an easy one, economically. Biodiesel is very expensive, relative to petroleum diesel," says Scott Irwin, an economist at the UniversityTurning Soybeans Into Diesel Fuel Is Costing Us Billionshttp://wkar.org/post/turning-soybeans-diesel-fuel-costing-us-billions
113209 as http://wkar.orgTue, 16 Jan 2018 22:43:00 +0000Turning Soybeans Into Diesel Fuel Is Costing Us BillionsDaniel CharlesWintertime is a special time of year at Cafe Berlin , located just a few blocks from the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. This is when they roll out their menu of wild game, such as deer, wild boar, and quail. Regular customers have come to expect it. "They ask, weeks in advance, 'When does the wild game menu start? When does it start?' " says James Watson, one of the restaurant's chefs. And the star of that menu is venison. The restaurant serves venison ribs, venison loin, even venison tartar. It's food that takes your mind back to old European castles, where you can imagine eating like aristocracy. You won't see venison in ordinary supermarkets. At Wagshall's, a specialty food shop in Washington, I found venison loin selling for $40 a pound. This venison comes from farms, usually from a species of very large deer called red deer. Much of it is imported from New Zealand. Yet there's a very different side to this luxury meat. Less than two hours drive from Washington, DanielWhy Is Venison On Expensive Plates And Food Pantry Shelves?http://wkar.org/post/why-venison-expensive-plates-and-food-pantry-shelves
112546 as http://wkar.orgTue, 02 Jan 2018 10:06:00 +0000Why Is Venison On Expensive Plates And Food Pantry Shelves?Daniel CharlesThe Trump administration has announced plans to withdraw a regulation that would have required organic egg producers to give their hens room to graze outdoors. The move was widely anticipated; the U.S. Department of Agriculture has repeatedly delayed the date on which these regulations would go into effect. But organic advocates still reacted with outrage and promised to fight the decision in court. It's an unusual situation, because in this case the demand for regulation is coming from the very organic farmers who would need to meet those new rules. But those farmers say those rules are needed to maintain a level playing field in the organic industry. Current organic rules require animals to have "access" to the outdoors. The largest egg producers, however, have built chicken houses that hold tens of thousands of hens, and the hens have access to the outdoors only through small enclosed "porches." Under the new rules, finalized at the end of the Obama administration, these porchesTrump Administration Moves To Kill Rules For Organic Eggshttp://wkar.org/post/trump-administration-moves-kill-rules-organic-eggs
111886 as http://wkar.orgFri, 15 Dec 2017 22:29:00 +0000Trump Administration Moves To Kill Rules For Organic EggsDaniel CharlesSomething unprecedented happened this week. The Food And Drug Administration released its annual accounting of antibiotics sold in America for use in poultry, pigs and cattle, and for the very first time, it reported that fewer of the drugs were sold. Sales of medically important antibiotics in 2016 declined by 14 percent, compared to 2015. The new report is the strongest evidence so far that the FDA's efforts to restrain antibiotic use on farms, along with public pressure, are having an effect. The FDA has been publishing these reports since 2009, and each report until this one had showed a steady increase in antibiotic sales for use in farm animals. "It's very encouraging," says Karin Hoelzer , a former FDA scientist who now works at the Pew Charitable Trusts. Pew, along with many other environmental and public health advocacy groups, has been demanding tougher action by the FDA to reduce antibiotic use on farms. Using these drugs, whether in humans or in animals, promotes theIs The Tide Of Antibiotic Use On Farms Now Turning?http://wkar.org/post/tide-antibiotic-use-farms-now-turning
111465 as http://wkar.orgThu, 07 Dec 2017 23:13:00 +0000Is The Tide Of Antibiotic Use On Farms Now Turning?Daniel CharlesFor more than a century, corn has been the most widely planted crop in the country and a symbol of small-town America. Think of the musical Oklahoma , where the corn is as tall as an elephant's eye, or the film Field of Dreams , in which old-time baseball players silently emerge from a field of corn. Even farmers are partial to corn, says Brent Gloy , who grows some himself, on a farm in Nebraska. (He also graduated from the University of Nebraska. You know, the Cornhuskers.) "I do think there's some truth to this idea that we're probably predisposed to corn," Gloy says. "But the current prices will make you lose those predispositions pretty quickly." In fact, those prices have now led to the end of King Corn's reign. According to statistics released this week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, corn is being pushed aside by a crop that's largely unfamiliar to people outside the farming community – soybeans. The numbers show that for the first time in history, American farmersThe Soybean Is King, Yet Remains Invisible http://wkar.org/post/soybean-king-yet-remains-invisible
111167 as http://wkar.orgFri, 01 Dec 2017 22:41:00 +0000The Soybean Is King, Yet Remains Invisible Daniel CharlesThe gap between rich and poor is one of the great concerns of modern times. It's even driving archaeologists to look more closely at wealth disparities in ancient societies. "That's what's so fun about it," says Timothy Kohler , at Washington State University. "It widens our perspective, and allows us to see that the way things are organized now is not the only way for things to be organized." Measuring inequality in societies that didn't leave written records is hard, of course. But physical ruins remain, and Kohler figured that even long ago, the richer you were, the bigger the house you probably occupied. So he and his colleagues collected measurements of homes from many different early human societies, including nomadic groups that depended on hunting, others that relied on small-scale growing of food, and early Roman cities. There were 63 sites in all, ranging in age from 9000 B.C. to 1500 A.D. In a report that appears this week in the journal Nature, Kohler reports thatFrom Cattle To Capital: How Agriculture Bred Ancient Inequalityhttp://wkar.org/post/cattle-capital-how-agriculture-bred-ancient-inequality
110397 as http://wkar.orgWed, 15 Nov 2017 21:14:00 +0000From Cattle To Capital: How Agriculture Bred Ancient InequalityDaniel CharlesThe World Health Organization, worried about an increasing epidemic of drug-resistant infections, has thrown its considerable weight behind the campaign to cut the use of antibiotics in pigs, chickens and cattle that are raised for their meat. The WHO is calling on governments to follow the example of Denmark and the Netherlands, which have banned the use of these drugs to make animals grow faster, or simply to protect healthy animals from getting sick. The "over-use and misuse of antimicrobials" has occurred both in human medicine and on farms, says Marc Sprenger, a scientist at WHO. But in sheer quantity, the amount of antibiotics used on farms far exceeds what's used to treat people in many countries, including in the U.S. "It's very important that we reduce use in human medicine and in animal production," says Kazuaki Miyagishima, director of the Department of Food Safety at the WHO. The WHO has now issued its first formal guidelines for how these drugs should be used on farms.WHO To Farmers: Stop Giving Your Animals So Many Antibiotics http://wkar.org/post/who-farmers-stop-giving-your-animals-so-many-antibiotics
110000 as http://wkar.orgTue, 07 Nov 2017 19:06:00 +0000WHO To Farmers: Stop Giving Your Animals So Many Antibiotics Daniel CharlesDave Chapman and dozens of other longtime organic farmers packed a meeting of the National Organic Standards Board in Jacksonville, Fla., this week. It was their last-ditch effort to strip the organic label from a tide of fluid-fed, "hydroponic" greenhouse-grown vegetables that they think represent a betrayal of true organic principles. "It really goes to the foundation of what organic farming means," says Chapman, who grows vegetables on his farm in East Thetford, Vt. Abby Youngblood, executive director of the National Organic Coalition , said that "we're seeing, here in Jacksonville, a lot of support for the founding principles of organic, which are really about soil health, regenerating the soil," rather than simply feeding plants the nutrients that they need. Their protests, however, failed to convince a majority of the board, which voted, 8-7, against a ban on hydroponic methods in organic farming. Members of the government-appointed board, which advises the U.S. Department ofHydroponic Veggies Are Taking Over Organic, And A Move To Ban Them Failshttp://wkar.org/post/hydroponic-veggies-are-taking-over-organic-and-move-ban-them-fails
109782 as http://wkar.orgThu, 02 Nov 2017 17:13:00 +0000Hydroponic Veggies Are Taking Over Organic, And A Move To Ban Them FailsDaniel CharlesIn a normal year, Kevin Bradley, a professor of weed science at the University of Missouri, would have spent his summer testing new ways to control a troublesome little plant called water hemp. This has not been a normal year. "I don't even talk about weed management anymore," Bradley tells me, and he sounds disgusted. "Nobody calls me and ask me those questions. I barely have time to even work with my graduate students. Everything is about dicamba. Every single day." Dicamba, an old weedkiller that is being used in new ways, has thrust Bradley and a half-dozen other university weed scientists into the unfamiliar role of whistleblower, confronting what they believe are misleading and scientifically unfounded claims by one of the country's biggest seed and pesticide companies: Monsanto. "It's not comfortable. I'm like anybody else, I don't like [it when] people are unhappy with me," says Mike Owen , a weed specialist at Iowa State University. Then he chuckles. "But sometimes, like JohnMonsanto Attacks Scientists After Studies Show Trouble For Weedkiller Dicambahttp://wkar.org/post/monsanto-and-weed-scientists-not-love-story
109409 as http://wkar.orgThu, 26 Oct 2017 09:03:00 +0000Monsanto Attacks Scientists After Studies Show Trouble For Weedkiller DicambaDaniel CharlesThere is one small field on Michael Sullivan's farm, near the town of Burdette, Ark., that he wishes he could hide from public view. The field is a disaster. There are soybeans in there, but you could easily overlook them. The field has been overrun by monsters: ferocious-looking plants called pigweeds, as tall as people and bursting with seeds that will come back to haunt any crops that Sullivan tries to grow here for years to come. "I'm embarrassed to say that we farm that field," Sullivan says. "We sprayed it numerous times, and it didn't kill it." These weeds have become resistant to Sullivan's favorite herbicides, including glyphosate, which goes by the trade name Roundup. Yet the rest of Sullivan's farm is beautiful. As farmers like to say, the fields are "clean." There is not a weed to be seen. In those fields, he planted soybeans that enjoy a novel superpower. They've been genetically modified by Monsanto, the biotech giant, so that they tolerate a different weed-killingA Wayward Weedkiller Divides Farm Communities, Harms Wildlifehttp://wkar.org/post/wayward-weed-killer-divides-farm-communities-harms-wildlife
108576 as http://wkar.orgSat, 07 Oct 2017 09:52:00 +0000A Wayward Weedkiller Divides Farm Communities, Harms WildlifeDaniel CharlesArkansas is on the verge of banning the use, during the growing season, of a Monsanto-backed weedkiller that has been blamed for damaging millions of acres of crops in neighboring farms this year. The weedkiller is called dicamba. It can be sprayed on soybeans and cotton that have been genetically modified to tolerate it. But not all farmers plant those new seeds. And across the Midwest, farmers that don't use the herbicide are blaming their dicamba-spraying neighbors for widespread damage to their crops — and increasingly, to wild vegetation. The issue has driven a wedge through farming communities in the Midwest, straining friendships and turning neighbors into adversaries. Monsanto turned to dicamba because many weeds have evolved resistance to the company's earlier weed-killing weapon of choice, glyphosate, also known as Roundup. Increasingly, Roundup no longer gets rid of farmers' most troublesome weeds. Dicamba is an old herbicide, but it's now being used much more widely, inArkansas Defies Monsanto, Moves To Ban Rogue Weedkillerhttp://wkar.org/post/arkansas-poised-ban-most-use-monsanto-herbicide
107866 as http://wkar.orgFri, 22 Sep 2017 08:51:00 +0000Arkansas Defies Monsanto, Moves To Ban Rogue WeedkillerDaniel CharlesThe organic eggs in your grocery store are supposed to come from chickens that have year-round access to the outdoors. That's according to long-standing organic regulations . But a huge battle has erupted over what "access to the outdoors" actually means. And it's now led to a lawsuit: The Organic Trade Association , which represents most organic food companies, is suing the government, demanding that it implement new rules that require organic egg producers to give their chickens more room to roam. On one side of this battle, there are a few large-scale organic egg producers, such as Herbruck's Poultry Ranch in Saranac, Mich. They believe that "access to the outdoors" means that the chickens get to live in houses with screened-in porches. "It's kind of like your screened porch on your house," says Greg Herbruck, president of the business. "When you go out there, you're outside. You're protected from the rain. In this case, we protect [the chickens] from disease and from predators."Organic Industry Sues USDA To Push For Animal Welfare Ruleshttp://wkar.org/post/organic-industry-sues-usda-push-animal-welfare-rules
107554 as http://wkar.orgWed, 13 Sep 2017 15:08:00 +0000Organic Industry Sues USDA To Push For Animal Welfare RulesDaniel CharlesWhen the worst of Irma's fury had passed, Gene McAvoy hit the road to inspect citrus groves and vegetable fields. McAvoy is a specialist on vegetable farming at the University of Florida's extension office in the town of LaBelle, in the middle of one of the country's biggest concentrations of vegetable and citrus farms. It took a direct hit from the storm. "The eyewall came right over our main production area," McAvoy says. The groves of orange and grapefruit were approaching harvest. But after Irma blew through, it left "50 or 60 percent of the fruit lying in water [or] on the ground," says McAvoy. Many trees were standing in water, a mortal danger if their roots stay submerged for longer than three or four days. About a quarter of the country's sugar production comes from fields of sugar cane near Lake Okeechobee, east of LaBelle. Harvest season for the sugar cane crop is only a few weeks away, but Irma knocked much of the cane down, making it more difficult to harvest. "We won'tFlorida's Farmers Look At Irma's Damage: 'Probably The Worst We've Seen' http://wkar.org/post/florida-businesses-struggle-reopen-without-power-after-irma
107533 as http://wkar.orgTue, 12 Sep 2017 21:32:00 +0000Florida's Farmers Look At Irma's Damage: 'Probably The Worst We've Seen' Daniel CharlesIf you are the kind of person who picks up a box of food in the store and studies the label to see how much sugar or salt is in it, you can thank a man named Michael Jacobson . Those labels with nutritional facts are a part of Jacobson's legacy, one of his many victories in a four-decade-long battle against "junk food." He has also had a hand in halting the marketing of many sugar-filled foods to children, reducing salt levels in packaged foods, and banning transfats. Next week, he's stepping down, after 46 years, as president of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, D.C. Jacobson is a paradoxical character. When he's quoted in a news story, he typically sounds ferocious. But in person, he's soft-spoken and chooses his words carefully. He'll break into a friendly, wide-eyed smile while insulting the nutritional quality of your favorite breakfast cereal. He is a food activist who doesn't really love food. When he was growing up, he didn't really care or noticeA Pioneer Of Food Activism Steps Down, Looks Backhttp://wkar.org/post/pioneer-food-activism-steps-down-looks-back
107317 as http://wkar.orgThu, 07 Sep 2017 19:29:00 +0000A Pioneer Of Food Activism Steps Down, Looks BackDaniel CharlesEarlier this week, as torrents of rain fell on Houston, Craig Boyan, CEO of the H-E-B supermarket chain, went on a video-taped tour of his company's emergency operations center in San Antonio, Texas. The company later made the video available online. It was a revealing look inside a logistical nightmare. Boyan walked through two crowded, windowless rooms, stopping to speak with the people responsible for reopening stores, locating employees (or, as the company calls them, "partners") to staff those stores, organizing deliveries of water and ice, and figuring out how to line up fresh supplies of milk, eggs and bread despite the city's waterlogged streets. One example: H-E-B makes most of its own bread, and its two bread-making plants are located in Corpus Christi and Houston. When the storm hit, "we had to take Corpus down, run the whole company out of Houston," Boyan explained in the video. When the storm moved on toward Houston, "we had to switch back to Corpus, now we're on generatorFor Grocery Stores In Texas, It's A Race To Restock Their Shelveshttp://wkar.org/post/grocery-stores-texas-its-race-restock-their-shelves
107023 as http://wkar.orgThu, 31 Aug 2017 21:49:00 +0000For Grocery Stores In Texas, It's A Race To Restock Their ShelvesDaniel CharlesBrent Deppe is taking me on a tour of the farm supply business, called Key Cooperative , that he helps to manage in Grinnell, Iowa. We step though the back door of one warehouse, and our view of the sky is blocked by a gigantic round storage tank, painted white. "This is the liquid nitrogen tank," Deppe explains. "It's a million-and-a-half gallon tank." Nitrogen is the essential ingredient for growing corn and most other crops. Farmers around here spread it on their fields by the truckload. "How much nitrogen goes out of here in a year?" I ask. Deppe pauses, reluctant to share trade secrets. "Not enough," he eventually says with a smile. "Because I'm in sales." For the environment, though, the answer is: Way too much. The problems with nitrogen fertilizer start at its creation, which involves burning lots of fossil fuels. Then, when farmers spread it on their fields, it tends not to stay where it belongs. Rainfall washes some of it into streams and lakes, and bacteria in the soil feedDoes 'Sustainability' Help The Environment Or Just Agriculture's Public Image?http://wkar.org/post/does-sustainability-help-environment-or-just-agricultures-public-image
106561 as http://wkar.orgTue, 22 Aug 2017 19:41:00 +0000Does 'Sustainability' Help The Environment Or Just Agriculture's Public Image?